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THE "ELECTRIC SUGAR * SWINDLE

The New York «« Sun " of January 4tb exposed at grea length what it calls tbe the eleetrie sugar refinery swindle, whlob 8 reposed to take any grade of sugar, and y parsing It through a certain electric prooess to return it In the highest grads of refined angar without tbe loss of one per Oent of the saocharioe. The cost was 4 dollars per ton and ten minotas tbe tlmt», whereas, tbe old prooess ooat 8 dollars 50 cents, and twenty-four hours to accomplish. Ihe work was done under Professor Friend's secret process for refining sugar. Offioeß were rontrd In Wall street, N.Y., and a refinery, with a capacity of 20,000 bsrrels a. day, was established m Brooklyn. W. H. Oottrellwas President ef the Company ; the stook sold m Eutope and America up to 1.C00.C00 dollars, and the work was said to be proceeding all right. The specimens of r. fined sugar shown were superior to any produoed by j tbe old process. No one but Mr Friend (an A merlcan, of French extraction), and his w>fe. a man named Howard, conoerned with Friend, and a few picked workman, ware allowed In tbe faotory where the re- j fining waa supposed to be progressing. No one was permitted to see the supposed qd que maohinery The stockholders saw only the sugar said to have been refined by the new prooess, and whloh was pronenneed by chemists and sugar experts remarkably fice* As the stockholders heard the machinery at work they took It for granted everything was all rlgh'. Friend died last March, leaving the "secret" In possession of bis wife, who guarded It e-refully. A boom for tbe ■took waa created In England, whloh eansed a correspondingly brisk demand for it m the United States, till tbe large ataounfc named above was disposed of. The ansplolons of the Oompany were •roused when they found that Mrs Friend ftterl disappeared, and a delegation of the •tcokholders lnvaded the "secret" room. A number of maohlnes were there used In breaking the cube sugar Into smaller particles, and m granulating tbe coarse sugar —nothing else. There was no mysterious •ieotric.l apparatus; there were only eruahert. Not a pound of raw sugar had been refined In the faotary. Quantities of refined sugar, ohiefly cube, had been purchased by the -operators, and prepared In •one secret spot with chemicals, whloh elhninated the ordinary Impurities found In ad sugar. This doctored sugar was than carted to the faotory In bags purportfog to contain raw sugar, and wben it came out of the "ohute," two fiiors below, all who saw it were astonished at ihe completeness of the process. Mr Willett, of the New York «• Weekly. Statistical Sugar Circular," is among tr ose duped and defrauded, and the English atoek holders have despatched an agent to the United States to make a personal Investigation. President Cotterill has gone weat searching for Mrs Friend , The result means ruin to many. There Is no efcanee to save anything, for the revelations In the factory show tbe entire business wai an absolute fraud. Later despatohes say the hands of the ffiotals of the Company ate not olean m tbe nutter. The first President (Woodworth) took large sums of money, and was compelled to retire, while Cotterill (the present President) and Robertson (the Treasurer) both succeeded In disposing of all their stock before the exposure oame, Zt had alao been discovered that the Friends served a term In the States m firfson. Warrants have been Issued for the arrest of Mrs Friend m the United States, England, and Canada.

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